This invention relates to the field of processing fish products and more particularly to an improved method for imparting color to fish flesh.
In the manufacture of lox, sides of salmon are smoked and food coloring is added thereto to impart the characteristic salmon red color. Coloring of the lox is conventionally accomplished by immersion of cured fish slices in a color bath containing the proper mixture of food colors, followed by packing of the fish for shipment. Substantial labor is required because the fish must be sliced before immersion in the coloring solution.
There have been no suitable commercial processes for coloring whole fish or sides of fish. Often salmon of excellent flavor and texture has severely reduced market appeal where it exhibits a white color rather than the salmon red color which the consuming public has learned to expect. Hatchery salmon in particular tend to have white flesh. Pale to dark chums, caught late in the season, also suffer from deficient color which adversely affects their market value. In order to render white or pale salmon attractive to the consumer, it has been necessary to subject slices of the fish to the aforesaid immersion coloring process which, in this instance also, affords only low productivity. Whole fish or sides of fish cannot be satisfactorily colored by immersion because the rate of diffusion of colorant through the fish flesh is not adequate to produce an even hue within a reasonable time.
Accordingly, there has been an unfulfilled need in the art for improved processes for coloring fish flesh and for introducing curing solutions into the fish.